Santa Rita, El Salvador

Santa Rita
Santa Rita
District
	Flag Seal
	Santa Rita Location in El Salvador
	Coordinates: 14°07′43″N 89°00′18″W / 14.12861°N 89.00500°W
Country	El Salvador
Department	Chalatenango
Municipality	Chalatenango Centro
Established	1807 or 1822
Disestablished	12 May 1902
Reestablished	28 April 1903
Named after	Rita of Cascia
Area
• Total	20.52 sq mi (53.14 km2)
Elevation	1,257 ft (383 m)
Population (2024)
• Total	4,298
• Density	210/sq mi (81/km2)
Time zone	UTC–6

Santa Rita is a district in the Chalatenango department of El Salvador and is one of the largest municipalities of Chalatenango. It has a shoreline on Lake Suchitlán and is bordered by the municipalities of Comalapa, Dulce Nombre de María, Concepción Quezaltepeque, El Paraíso, and San Rafael.^[3]

History

Official reports record the town of Santa Rita being established in 1822, while according to Colonial Intendant Antonio Gutiérrez y Ulloa, it was established in 1807.^[3]^[4]^[5] Santa Rita was a part of San Salvador from its establishment until 13 May 1833, after which it was transferred to Chalatenango under the administration of Tejutla until being returned to San Salvador on 21 October 1833.^[5] In 1835, it was transferred to Cuscatlán and was incorporated into El Salvador in 1841.^[5]

On 1 November 1846, General Francisco Malespín defeated Salvadoran soldiers under Joaquín Peralta, who were loyal to President Eugenio Aguilar, in battle in Santa Rita during his war to retake the presidency.^[5] Santa Ana transferred a final time to Chalatenango in 1855.^[5] It was dissolved on 12 May 1902 and transferred to Dulce Nombre de María on the executive decree of President Tomás Regalado.^[3]^[4]^[5] President Pedro José Escalón reestablished the municipality through an executive decree on 28 April 1903.^[3]^[4]^[5] Another law was passed on 15 July 1919 that reinforced the existence of Santa Rita as separate from both Tejutla and Dulce Nombre de María.^[5]

On 17 March 1982, four Dutch journalists and four guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) were massacred on the road from El Paraíso to Santa Rita by the Atonal Battalion during the Salvadoran Civil War.^[6]

Geography

Santa Rita has an elevation of 1,257 feet or 383 meters and is 20.52 square miles or 53.14 square kilometers large.^[2]^[5] According to Global Forest Watch, from 2001 to 2019, the municipality lost 310 hectares of tree cover, which was a decrease of 18%.^[7]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1890	1,090	—
1956	2,241	+105.6%
2007	5,985	+167.1%
2024	4,298	−28.2%

Santa Rita had a population of 1,090 in 1890 and a population of 2,241 in 1956.^[4]^[8] In the 2007 census, Santa Rita had a population of 5,985 people, with only 400 or 6.7% living in urban areas and the remainder living in rural areas.^[9] There were 1,498 occupied homes with an average of 6 people per household.^[10] The 2024 census found that Santa Rita's population had decreased to 4,298.^[11]

Administrative divisions

Santa Rita is divided into four cantons and three caseríos:^[1]

Barillas
El Chilamate

San Nicolás Piedras Gordas
- El Tronconal
- La Rastra
- Tasajeras
Tobías

Mayors of Santa Rita

The current mayor of Santa Rita is Ismael Romero Gutiérrez of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).^[1] The following table lists all the elected mayors of Santa Rita since 1994.

Mayor		Elected	Term of office			Political party	Ref.
Mayor		Elected	Assumed office	Left office	Duration	Political party	Ref.
	María Luisa Mena de Guardado	1994	1 May 1994	1 May 1997	3 years and 0 days	Nationalist Republican Alliance	^[12]
	Adolfo Guardado Vásquez	1997	1 May 1997	1 May 2000	3 years and 0 days	Nationalist Republican Alliance	^[13]
	Atilio López López	2000	1 May 2000	1 May 2003	3 years and 0 days	Social Christian Union	^[14]
	Adolfo Guardado Vásquez	2003	1 May 2003	1 May 2006	3 years and 0 days	National Conciliation Party	^[15]
	Ismael Romero Gutiérrez	2006	1 May 2006	1 May 2024	18 years and 0 days	Nationalist Republican Alliance	^[16]
		2009					^[17]
		2012					^[18]
		2015
		2018					^[19]
		2021					^[20]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c "Santa Rita". iSDEM (in Spanish). 25 January 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Santa Rita". Geonames. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Santa Rita". Chalatenango.sv (in Spanish). 1 February 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Santa Rita". Fondo de Inversión Social para el Desarrollo Loca (in Spanish). 4 October 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Santa Rita, Chalatenango". ElSalvadorEsHermoso (in Spanish). September 2016. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ Betancur, Belisario; Figueredo Planchart, Reinaldo; Buergenthal, Thomas (26 January 2001). "From Madness to Hope: the 12–Year War in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador" (PDF). The Commission on the Truth for El Salvador. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 16, 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
^ "Tree Cover Loss in Santa Rita, Chalatenango, El Salvador". Global Forest Watch. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ Ministry of the Economy 1959, p. 216
^ Census 2008, p. 34
^ Census 2008, p. 79
^ "VII Censo de Población y VI de Vivienda 2024 Características de la Población" [VII Census of the Population and VI of Housing 2024 Characteristics of the Population] (PDF). Government of El Salvador (in Spanish). 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2025. Retrieved 19 April 2025.
^ "Memoria Anual de Labores – Correspondiente a 1994 y Memoria de Labores de las Elecciones de 1994" [Annual Memory of Labors – Correspondence to 1994 and Memory of Labors of the 1994 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador. July 1994. p. 56.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 1997" [Special Memory – 1997 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 1997. p. 71. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2000" [Special Memory – 2000 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2000. p. 151. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2003" [Special Memory – 2003 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2003. p. 130. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2006" [Special Memory – 2006 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2006. p. 182. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2009" [Special Memory – 2009 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). June 2009. p. 66. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2012" [Special Memory – 2012 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2012. p. 145. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2018" [Special Memory – 2018 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2018. p. 112. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ "Memorial Especial – Elecciones 2021" [Special Memory – 2021 Elections] (PDF). Supreme Electoral Court (in Spanish). 2021. p. 229. Retrieved 12 August 2023.

Bibliography

"VI Censo de Población y V de Vivienda 2007 – Población, Viviendas, Hogares" [VI Census of Population and V of Housing 2007 – Population, Housing, Households] (PDF) (in Spanish). Ministry of the Economy of El Salvador. April 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
"Diccionario Geografico de la República de El Salvador – 1959" [Geographic Dictionary of the Republic of El Salvador – 1959] (PDF) (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Ministry of the Economy. 1959. Retrieved 22 May 2021.